Art Intervention Strategies

What is an ‘Art Intervention strategy’?

An art intervention strategy is a plan you put in place for an underperforming art student. You can do this for any student at any age, but in the UK, it is often put in place for a GCSE or an A-level student who is underachieving.

How do you Identify Who Needs an Art Intervention Strategy?

First, identify the lowest-performing students in your class, regardless of the data/scores you have.

Next, see which students are underperforming in relation to the data/testing scores you have.

Next, for both of the above, identify why you think they are underperforming. Is it simply a low skill level and/or a lack of ideas? Or, are they unfocused in class and/or not doing homework?  Do they lack confidence? 

The timing of this is crucial: don’t leave it too late.  There is no point identifying them at the eleventh hour when it’s too late to do anything about it.

Wider Issues

Check with your head of year or the appropriate person if there are any wider issues with each student.  You should already have information if a student has a special need, but check that your information is up-to-date. Is the student underperforming in all subjects or just art? Are there pastoral problems that are influencing their achievement?

Art Intervention Strategies

You need to find a strategy that fits in with your department, staff and available time. Different art teachers find that different things work for them. Consider the following:

Have a one-to-one meeting with the student, or talk with them in class after you have assessed their work, and create a list of what is missing. (You probably do this already) Explain that their current level of progress has reached a point where you need to take action, that you are letting the school know that they are underachieving and that you will be informing their parents. Explain that everything you do is to help them achieve their potential.

Set clear tasks with deadlines. They will probably need very specific tasks.

Strongly suggest/insist that they attend a series of lunchtime or after-school sessions. This could be with you overseeing it, or with them working with an older, able student. If they are going to work with an older student, I would go through the underperforming student’s sketchbook with the older student to let them know where I felt it was lacking.

Following your school’s protocols, contact parents to let them know their child is underperforming in your subject.  Parental support can be an enormous help.  Have a strategy to share with parents keeping things positive and constructive. Perhaps the first task on a list with a deadline could be shared at this point.

Workshop Intervention

Alternatively, offer a lunchtime or after-school workshop, or a series of workshops, to a small group of your lowest performing students. Plan something you know will produce a lot of work. e.g. monoprinting, cyanotypes or quick image transfer techniques. These methods and other forms of printing can quickly create a body of work. If they create a great monoprint, photocopy it onto good paper and get them to work into it in different ways.

You may have other workshop ideas that produce work quickly – work to your strengths.

Keep everything good-humoured if you can.  No student works well under duress. I would always joke that they were lucky to spend more time with me.

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